Monday, October 22, 2012

Hello everyone! This last week has been fairly exciting. Due to the season, the weather is at that awkward stage where sometimes the mornings are cold enough that you kinda want warmer clothes, but the afternoons are still hot enough that short sleeves are the way to go. Yeah. I've been told that once winter hits it'll be pretty cold though, so we'll see how that goes.

So almost exactly a week ago, last monday after emails, we had a dinner appointment with the Bishop family on Zama Base. They took us to eat at the food court, and when we walk in this man walks over to us and says "Elders! Hey, I have a question for you." Well, you can imagine we were quite suprised, and a little excited. Well, it turns out that this man's name is Rick Taylor. He's only in Japan for a couple of weeks to teach some kind of class, and he was wanting to know when and where to go for sunday services. We of course told him where the church was at and everything, but in the course of our conversation, found out that he's from Gilbert. Cool, right? But that's not all. I after hearing that he's from Gilbert, I of course told him that I was also from Gilbert. Well, after talking a little more, it turns out that his cousin, Sister Crocket, lives in my ward. Haha! wow. The world has gotten smaller, once again.

Me, Rick Taylor, and Elder Nakamura

Sitting on a chair at a train station.. Elder Apalanio's chair broke so we brought him a new one

Tuesday was pretty fun. First of all, it was my birthday. Several people asked me to let them know what I did to celebrate, so here it goes. First of all, Elder Nakamura and I made a card for Elder Harrison, whose birthday is also the 16th of October. When we left the apartment for the day, we went and bought some treats for the Harrisons, then took them over to their apartment. They weren't home because they had some meeting, so we stuffed Elder Harrison's card and gift into the post box. I'm sure they weren't expecting that when they came home and checked the mail. Haha! So yeah, after that, we went out and did work. Our day was completely open, except for a dinner appointment. That means we had almost 6 hours to do some finding. As you can imagine, 6 hours is a long time to be trying to find people interested in learning about Christ. So, about halfway through, we stopped at a 7-11, grabbed some drinks, and took a quick break. Yay! Birthday treats! After that, we had our dinner appointment with the Smith family. They're a way fun family. And they have a hairless cat. So I got to hold a hairless cat for my birthday. When we went back to the apartment at the end of the day, there was a bag hanging on our doorknob. It was filled with various candies, and a card. Wouldn't you know it, the Harrisons attacked us while we were out too. Yes, that was my birthday. A gift... exchange? of sorts with the Harrisons, 6 hours in the streets, a quick break, and a hairless cat. Exciting, right? Right. Oh! And that night I also opened the birthday package my family sent me. It was a "Party in a Box", with balloons, brownie mix, candles, some candy, a few gifts (most of them were somehow related to ninjas) and letters and cards from quite a few friends and family members. I haven't had a chance to use the party in a box yet, but I'll let you know how that goes once I do. My favorite part though was easily the letters and cards. So to everyone who wrote a letter or card for my birthday package, thank you. You're the best!

Elder Nakamura enjoying the dinner that I made for us

So, as far as the rest of the week goes, it's been more of the typical missionary schedule. Ishihara and Jun are both doing really well. I'm excited to keep working with them and watch the progress they've been making. General Conference was also a great help. They were both really impressed with it. I hope that their experiences with General Conference will give them the boost they need to keep progressing. On Sunday, Elder Nakamura and I went back to his old area to attend the baptismal service of one of his former investigators. That was way good. It was exciting to be able to go and watch that. The man who was baptized is actually from Gana, and he seems really solid. He's a good addition to the ward out there. Hopefully there will be some baptisms in the Yamato Ward soon too.

So those are the highlights for the week. Maybe by next week we'll have had a chance to use the party in a box and I'll be able to let you know about it. Anyways, until next week!